AIC at 20: Responding to the Texas fertiliser plant explosion
As AIC marks 20 years as the UK agri-supply industry’s leading trade association, we're looking back at some of its greatest achievements since it was founded in 2003.
Each week throughout 2023, we’ll explore a major achievement where AIC represented its Member businesses, promoted the benefits of modern commercial agriculture in the UK, and supported collaboration throughout the food chain.
This week we review how AIC led an industry response in the wake of a major incident involving fertiliser in Texas, USA.
Deadly incident
In April 2013 a Texas fertiliser storage and distribution site was rocked by a deadly explosion, killing 15 people and injuring more than 160 others.
The explosion happened after a fire broke out at the facility which was storing a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
The effects reverberated around the world as politicians and legislators assessed the likelihood and dangerous consequences if a similar scale incident were to happen in their own country or region.
The AIC team handled urgent enquiries from Members and the media on the day of the incident.
Despite scant initial information from the scene, AIC’s expertise in developing the Fertiliser Industry Assurance Scheme (FIAS) meant queries were handled as a leading voice of authority on the issue.
Reassuring government and industry
AIC later held productive talks with UK and EU regulators to give assurances of the high standards operating in the UK, which include the safe storage and handling of fertilisers. The FIAS Standards were created to minimise the potential for such a shocking incident to occur.
The scheme gives the entire industry confidence that fertiliser, in particular ammonium nitrate, is produced, stored and handled appropriately.
AIC's immediate and robust response to the Texas incident ensured that there was no a knee-jerk response from legislators, which could have added extra burden to the UK's fertiliser industry.
Find out more about FIAS by watching the video below.
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Visit the AIC at 20 webpage for more content like this.
Authors
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.
Roberta Reeve
Roberta Reeve is Technical Manager for AIC Services. She is based at AIC Head Office, Peterborough and is responsible for the management and coordination of the AIC assurance schemes.
Jo Gilbertson
Jo Gilbertson is AIC’s Head of Fertiliser and is based at our Head Office in Peterborough.
Jo is responsible for the management and co-ordination of all matters relating to the production and distribution of fertilisers on behalf of Members.
Graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Health, he has additional post graduate qualifications in air pollution control, health and safety, advanced negotiation skills, and quality assurance management.